The Overland Campaign, also known as the Wilderness Campaign, was a Union offensive launched in May 1864, intended to defeat Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and bring an end to the American Civil War. The campaign, designed by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, was the bloodiest of the war. Despite losing several battles and suffering higher casualties, the campaign was a strategic Union victory. Grant successfully reduced the insurrection to a war of attrition, which the South was unable to win.